Quantico recap: Quantico

It’s taken 10 episodes, but our Quantico team is finally on the same page…almost. It took Alex falsely admitting guilt in the bombings and a bunch of undercover surveilling from Liam and Miranda, but for the most part, everyone’s true intentions are on the table. Does that mean we know who’s behind the bombing? No, of course not. But it’s looking very much like we’ll have answers next week. Let’s talk about what we learned tonight:

The Academy

If you’ve wondered why the intelligence agencies in the world of Quantico are so incompetent, it’s probably because they have the rookies selecting the incoming special agent trainees. That’s right: Miranda gives the NATs the files of all FBI candidates for next year. Their Assignment of the Week is to go through the background information to decide who should and shouldn’t receive a final interview.

While they’re working on nitpicking the future candidates, they’re also trying to take down fellow candidates. Nimah has had it out for Simon ever since he turned in Anne Heche. She seeks out Danny, who was in the NAT class before theirs. He gives her information on Simon, which he learned during the screening of candidates for her class.

She takes pictures to the group and publicly accuses Simon of being a war criminal. He denies it; he says he was a translator for the IDF. But when Nimah pushes, he breaks.

He was a translator until they asked him to do more: He “got close to women” in order for them to reveal information about their husbands. Only his platoon leader had gone rogue and was torturing these women. Simon was playing a part in something he didn’t realize. And he believes war is wrong.

Nimah still isn’t having it — but Ryan sticks up for Simon. And then he reveals his own secret about already being an FBI agent. Gasps all around…but those aren’t all the secrets.

During hand-to-hand combat earlier in the day, Alex saw Natalie’s “scar” start to peel off. And because apparently everyone in Quantico is a busybody, Alex confronts her about it in the locker room. Natalie shoots back, “Stay out of my business, or I’ll start poking in yours.”

But, much like Elias before her, Alex can’t let it lie. She asks Ryan to look into Natalie’s past as one last favor before he moves to Los Angeles to become a real special agent again. All he can find is that Natalie has a restraining order against a guy. Before they can talk through the implications of that, Natalie walks by and sees them snooping in her file. (These guys really need to work on the “secret” part of being FBI agents.)

Shortly after, Miranda tells the class that there’s an emergency session of the review board. Ryan says that one person will be packing his or her bags — and I find myself asking why the whole class needs to sit in on this.

No matter the reason, all the other NATs are there to see Natalie singled out and questioned. Turns out Alex wasn’t the only one who saw the fake scar. Miranda and the review board want Natalie to fess up to her lies. The man who she has a restraining order against is the father of her child; he was emotionally abusive, so she created the scar in order for a judge to give her custody of their daughter.

They let Natalie stay at the academy, but the same isn’t true for Simon. Miranda found out he attacked Ryan (earlier in the season), and because it went unreported, he has to leave the program — and he’s NOT happy about it.

Academy Notes:

Caleb is still trying to figure out whether his father’s hunch about Shelby’s sister is right. She catches him trying to take files from her computer, but when he explains he just wants to help, to make sure she isn’t being catfished, she lets him continue digging. He video-chats with her sister and, by saying he’ll tell Shelby unless she cuts him into the deal, Caleb gets her to admit she’s conning Shelby. Poor Shelby just lost the remaining “family” she had.

The guys taking Simon’s towel in the locker room to give him “the same freedom [he] gave that serial killer” felt a little too middle school for my taste.

Also in the locker room, Simon had blueprints sticking out of his backpack. This will be important later.

During the future-NAT screening, Caleb moved a “deny” candidate to the “accept” pile. This was more than Caleb just wanting to be right, right?